Only after a ppp dial-up, the command 'dmesg' always outputs
7 KB of weird hex info like this (cut version):

45    ow.</SE
ppp: receive frame, count = 263
FF 03 00 2D 1F 8D CF 4C ...-...L
45 43 54 3E 0A 3C 2F 54 ECT>.</T
44 3E 20 3C 54 44 20 41 D> <TD A
4C 49 47 4E 3D 22 52 49 LIGN="RI
47 48 54 22 3E 3C 41 20 GHT"><A
48 52 45 46 3D 22 62 75 HREF="bu
67 5F 73 74 61 74 75 73 g_status
2E 70 68 74 6D 6C 23 73 .phtml#s
65 76 65 72 69 74 79 22 everity"
3E 3C 42 3E 53 65 76 65 ><B>Seve
72 69 74 79 3A 3C 2F 42 rity:</B
3E 3C 2F 41 3E 3C 2F 54 ></A></T
44 3E 20 3C 54 44 3E 3C D> <TD><
53 45 4C 45 43 54 20 4E SELECT N
41 4D 45 3D 22 62 75 67 AME="bug
5F 73 65 76 65 72 69 74 _severit
79 22 3E 0A 3C 4F 50 54 y">.<OPT

I presume it is related to either ppp or util-linux
(ppp-2.3.7-2, util-linux-2.9o-13). And it is the same with
kernel 2.2.11 and rawhide's util-linux-2.9v-20.